me. I don't know why, but I was always being
quarreled over by my father and mother--"

"Did you ever hear of God?" cried the Baroness.

The girl looked up wide-eyed.

"Oh, yes, papa and mamma often said 'Good God,' and 'In God's name,' and
'God's thunder,'" said she, with perfect simplicity.

"Then you never saw a church? Did you never think of going into one?"

"A church?--Notre-Dame, the Pantheon?--I have seen them from a distance,
when papa took me into town; but that was not very often. There are no
churches like those in the Faubourg."

"Which Faubourg did you live in?"

"In the Faubourg."

"Yes, but which?"

"In the Rue de Charonne, madame."

The inhabitants of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine never call that notorious
district other than _the_ Faubourg. To them it is the one and only
Faubourg; and manufacturers generally understand the words as meaning
the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

"Did no one ever tell you what was right or wrong?"

"Mamma used to beat me when I did not do what pleased her."

"But did you not know that it was very wicked to run away from your
father and mother to go to live with an old man?"

Atala Judici gazed at the Baroness with a haughty stare, but made no
reply.

"She is a perfect little savage," murmured Adeline.

"There are a great many like her in the Faubourg, madame," said the
stove-fitter's wife.

"But she knows nothing--not even what is wrong. Good Heavens!--Why do
you not answer me?" said Madame Hulot, putting out her hand to take
Atala's.

Atala indignantly withdrew a step.

"You are an old fool!" said she. "Why, my father and mother had had
nothing to eat for a week. My mother wanted me to do much worse than
that, I think, for my father thrashed her and called her a thief!
However, Monsieur Vyder paid all their debts, and gave them some
money--oh, a bagful! And he brought me away, and poor papa was crying.
But we had to part!--Was it wicked?" she asked.

"And are you very fond of Monsieur Vyder?"

"Fond of him?" said she. "I should think so! He tells me beautiful
stories, madame, every evening; and he has given me nice gowns, and
linen, and a shawl. Why, I am figged out like a princess, and I never
wear sabots now. And then, I have not known what it is to be hungry
these two months past. And I don't live on potatoes now. He brings me
bonbons and burnt almonds, and chocolate almonds.--Aren't they good?--I
do anything he pleases for a bag of chocolate.--Then m